How to Queer Your Historic House: Toolkit Launch
Event information
Date: 20th May
Time: 10am-12pm
Organiser: Queer Heritage and Collections Network (QHCN)
Venue: Online
Cost: Free
How can historic houses and heritage sites better reflect and interpret LGBTQ+ histories? Join QHCN for the launch of ‘How to Queer Your Historic House’, a free downloadable resource designed to help heritage professionals uncover and integrate queer narratives into historic spaces.
Created by researcher and heritage practitioner Indigo Dunphy-Smith, this practical, budget-friendly guide is designed for curators, visitor services staff, educators, and volunteers working across heritage sites. Drawing on years of hands-on experience in historic houses, Indigo provides a framework for rethinking object interpretation, challenging biases, and linking contextual LGBTQ+ stories into the property’s narrative—even at sites with no direct queer history. The guide offers tools to explore broader social and cultural contexts, drawing meaningful links between historic spaces, collections and queer experiences of the past to tell a more complete story of a historic house.
This event will include:
- An introduction to the resource – key themes, methodologies, and how to apply them in heritage settings
- A discussion on the challenges of integrating queer histories and strategies for overcoming obstacles
- A practical guide exploring examples and how to implement queer storytelling at your site
- A special look at the pilot project
- Audience Q&A